One Thousand Demons
by Ringbearingreasergal
Summary: Raven Oneshot about what was going through her mind during 'How Long Is Forever'. Kinda creepy with a redemptive theme. Not to mention a pretty darn good ending if I do say so myself. COMPLETE.


**Summary: A one-shot about Raven's POV during 'How Long is Forever'. Slightly morbid, with (what I think) a pretty good ending. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own _Teen Titans_.**

One Thousand Demons

Sheer terror. And no way to let it all out. Raven ran. Faster. _Faster_! Why were they gaining on her? Robin? Nowhere to be seen. Starfire? Dead. Cyborg? She was surprised she remembered his name. Beast Boy? Old, fat, and useless. They're catching up, Raven.

"Raaaaaveeeeennnnn!" One hissed. Demons. All of them. Impish black things with leathery wings, jagged talons, and sulferic breath. Ten. One hundered. One thousand. It was hard to tell, but most likely the latest.

Jump City was silent. Silent and dark. Pitch black. If this was even Jump City. She'd been running from these demons for _twenty years_. Down the same empty street that echoed her hollow footsteps hitting the ground matching perfectly with the gasps of her ragged breathing. They never tired. But she sure did. Cold sweat beaded on her forehead, but it never fell. It never did. Past the infinite rows of eerily silhouetted bulidings. They never distracted. They knew where she was. Her magic had no power here. Alone. Unescapeably alone. Except for the pounding terror beating where her heart used to be.

They never really speak to each other. They hissed her name, muttered incomprehensible phrases she didn't have time to pause and make out. Deathly silence.

Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone. All of them. Heroes, legends, _friends_. All are right, but none are left. Not even her. She had been damned a long time go--from birth in fact. But to _nothing_ like this.

"Raven? Raven!" A familiar voice called, worried and broken. Starfire's voice. Or the voice of an illusion. Her mind had played similar tricks on her before. Her sorcery and magick turning finally against her. This was no Starfire. If it was, she wouldn't be running down this forsaken path. However . . . a masochistic hope forced her to question.

"Starfire?" She breathed, her throat dry and parched. Her tongue swollen with thinned saliva.

"Raven, it is Starfire!" The voice said, concerned. Demons. This voice was only the demons.

"Go away," she said in a dull voice, "_I know_ all of you are dead."

"Raven, _friend_," the illusion pleaded, "I am alive . . ."

"No you're _not_!" She snapped, irritated and lost, with less than enough mental capacity to deal with it any longer. "Get back _ghost. Illusion. Fraud._" She spat. And focused her eyes on the heavy dank, dark air just ahead of her. Like she had done for the past twenty years. The voice cried out and was heard no more. Disintegrated into particles of meaningless sound waves that didn't bother to reverberate back against the morbid buildings. _Keep running Raven. You know you have to. You know you __**want **__to._

A spasm of confusion sparked through Raven. Her conscience had told her many false things. And many true things. But never the concept that she ran beeause she wanted to . . .

WHAT?! When did THAT get there?! Her path was most suddenly cut off. A big tall dark building, cutting off the road. Naturally. Like it had really always been there.

Something boiled in Raven. Something that hadn't surfaced and she hadn't felt in over twenty years. Determination. Passionate determination. She had come to the end of the road and desperation was the only energy that spurred her on now.

She was close to this sudden end--the building. Once again, the demons gained on her, like they always did. With a cry, her feet touched the base. Willing herself to remember her stunts and balance she had when she was a Titan, she raced up the building, her footsteps now heavy and pulsing, no longer hollow. Although she didn't see it, her eyes blazed violet flames, dark, dangerous, and healed. _Enough_.

Once her feet began to skid she back-flipped off the building and landed, her feet in stretch postion, her hand on the ground between them. Behind the demons. She, for once, had the better.

They halted, all of them, as they turned a full effortless 360 degrees. They looked at her, their squinted amber eyes crackling in suspicion.

Hatred replaced the horror etched on her face as she got a good look at them. Her fists lenched involuntarily at her sides. She screamed as they began to pulsate with black energy. Unchecked tears flowed freely down her ashen face. Things were changing _now._ _Why_?

The demons shrieked and fluttered, trying to get away as the pulsing in her wrist's and hands shook her, becoming uncontrollable. She gritted her teeth in pain, knowing that if this energy wasn't released she would die. Again. It had been _twenty years_ since she had felt like this, and there was only one way she knew to let it out.

"A--ah--" she squeaked in fear. "_Azorath!" Screaming, _her fists exploded with the black magick._ "Metrion!"_ Her arms shot to the sky._ Zinthos!_" She wailed, an explosion of black power rocked the city. The demons were enveloped in it, and sobbing, she watched her demons die. _Robin, handsome hero with that mysterious mask hiding his eyes. _Dead. _Cyborg, metal protector who had never let her fall. _Dead. _Beast Boy, laughing green eyes, rueful grin that gave the Titans real __**life**_Dead. _Starfire herself, well meaning and beautiful, proof of remaining innocence_. Dead. _Terra, Slade, her own father--Trigon, Malchior, Mother, Aqualad, Jinx, Bee, Blackfire, every comrade, every foe, all of them dead. But why?_

And Raven knew. No. More. Running.

Her demons, once paralyzed in the black film, were thrown far, never to be seen again. Raven was raised to the sky, her arms providing the artifical strength. Her eyes glazed white and her sleek purple hair flew back violently in the wind.

Someone was screaming, and crying, and laughing and whispering. She vaguely recognized it to be her own voice. The black sky changed slowly to a dark blue, indigo, melted into light blue, and then white. A seering, blinding, dazzling, pure white.

She floated back to the ground, not of her own accord, and sunk to her knees, weeping. She looked up. A room. A white, white, room. Nothing else.

"No!" She screamed, beating the walls with her fist. Everything she had known to be real in the last twenty years . . . was _that_ the real illusion? If that was the illusion . . . what was--

Starfire.

Starfire, Starfire, Starfire, Starfire, Starfire.

One hour passed. And then two. Three. Four. She stared at the door, afraid, knowing the people beyond it were only demons because she made them to be.

But still afraid. She wondered if she really wanted to open it. She wondered if it was too late, knowing she could never be the same. Maybe she should just end it here and now, knowing that she had missed her last chance with the last remaining Titan. But then again . . .

Raven thought back to that last fateful day that her friend had been too excited to celebrate her Tameranean day of Friendship.

Taking one last look at the door in front of her, she walked a full circle around her haven. Her refuge. Her hell-ish prison, complete with her own personal one thousand demons. And opened the door.

**XxXxXx**

**Weird huh? Please review!**


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